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Professor Michael Woods

Director of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences
He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Wales, Lampeter, and a PhD from Bristol University.

Contact

Email: m.woods@aber.ac.uk
Office: K9
Phone: +44 (0)1970 622 589
Fax: +44 (0)1970 622 659

Responsibilities

• Director, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences
• Chair, Mangement Group and Research and Strategic Planning Committee 
• Chair, Health, Safety and Environment Committee

Teaching Areas

Modules Taught

Research

Michael Woods’s research interests address the broad fields of rural geography and sociology, political geography, economic geography and social geography, with a particular focus on the politics and dynamics of rural change. His current and recent research falls primarily into four main areas: (i) The emergent ‘global countryside’ and the reconstitution of rural places under globalization, employing a relational analysis to understand the interplay of local and global actors and processes and human and non-human actants in reproducing and contesting globalization in the rural sphere; (ii) The ‘politics of the rural’, including local rural conflicts, the mobilization of rural social movements, and the contested articulation of the rural through policy discourse; (iii) Community governance, leadership and power relations, in both rural and urban settings, with a particular focus on town, parish and community councils in the UK; (iv) The social and economic restructuring of rural communities and regions, including population dynamics, service provision and economic development issues, with a particular focus on Wales. This last theme includes work through the Wales Rural Observatory and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD). Politics of the rural, including rural conflicts and rural social movements; community governance and participation; power structures and elites; the political representation of place, globalisation and rural localities.

Current Research Projects

• Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization (DERREG) (Framework Programme 7, 2009-2011)
• Globally Engaged? Responses to Neoliberal Globalization Among Family Farmers in Australia (Australian Research Council, 2009-2011)
• Wales Rural Observatory (Welsh Assembly Government, 2003-2013)

Previous Research Projects

• Grassroots Rural Protest and Political Activity in Britain 2008 (ESRC, 2006-2008)
• Research Study of the Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme (Defra, 2008)
• The Role, Function and Future Potential of Community and Town Councils in Wales (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002-2003)
• Participation, Power and Rural Community Governance in England and Wales (ESRC, 2000-2002)
• Community Action, Partnerships and Emergent Forms of Governance in Rural Wales and the Borders (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1998-2000)

Current PhD Students

• Ms Hilary Carberry
• Miss Lucy Jackson
• Mr Rhys Dafydd Jones
• Mr Alex Phillips
• Ms Julia Van Kemenade
• Chi-Mao Wang

Research Assistants

• Dr Laura Jones
• Dr Sophie Wynne-Jones

Biography

Michael Woods is Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences. He joined IGES in 1996, having completed his first degree at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and his PhD at Bristol University. He became Acting Director of IGES in July 2007 and Director in September 2008.

Michael’s main research interests lie in the fields of rural geography and political geography. He has been Co-Director of the Wales Rural Observatory (a collaborative venture with Cardiff University) since 2007, and is coordinator of a major European project on ‘Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization’ (DERREG). He is also collaborating with colleagues at the University of Queensland in Brisbane in research on ‘globally engaged’ farmers, and is convenor of the Environment and Tourism Thematic Group for the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD). He was awarded the John Fraser Hart Award for Research Excellence in Rural Geography by the Association of American Geographers in 2010.

Michael is a member of the Research, Innovation and Engagement Committee of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and of the National Training Advisory Group for Community and Town Councils in Wales. He is a former Chair of the Political Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG, and a former member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers).

His publications include three textbooks, Rural (Routledge, 2010), Rural Geography (Sage, 2005), and An Introduction to Political Geography (Routledge, 2004); the monograph, Contesting Rurality: Politics in the British Countryside (Ashgate, 2005); and an edited book, New Labour’s Countryside: Rural Policy in Britain since 1997 (Policy Press, 2008). He is a member of the editorial boards for Dialogues in Human Geography and European Countryside.

Staff Publications

Peer Reviewed Book Chapters & Journal Articles

2011

1. Woods, M. and Gardner, G. 2011. Applied policy research and critical human geography: some reflections on swimming in murky waters, Dialogues in Human Geography, 1, (in press).
2. Woods, M., Heley, J., Richards, C. and Watkin, S. (2011) Rural people and the land, in I. Convery, T. Dutson, P. Davis and G. Corsane (eds) Making Sense of Place. Boydell and Brewer (in press).
3. Woods, M. 2011. Market towns in Wales: a differentiated geography, in P. Milbourne (ed.) The Geographies of Rural Wales. University of Wales Press (in press).
4. Woods, M. 2011. ‘Poles Apart? Migrant workers and community in Rural Wales’, in P. Milbourne (ed.) The Geographies of Rural Wales. University of Wales Press (in press).
5. Woods, M. 2011. Rural Geography III: Rural futures and the future of rural geography, Progress in Human Geography (in press). DOI
6. Woods, M. 2011. The local politics of the global countryside: boosterism, aspirational ruralism and the contested reconstitution of Queenstown, New Zealand’, Geojournal, in press. DOI
7. Woods, M. 2011. ‘Rurality’ in M. Juergensmeyer (ed.) The Encyclopaedia of Global Studies. Sage (in press).
8. Woods, M. 2011. ‘Policing rural protest’, in R. Mawby and R. Yarwood (eds) Rural Policing and Policing the Rural.. Aldershot: Ashgate.

2010

1. Woods, M. 2010. Rural. Routledge.
2. Woods, M. 2011. ‘Reporting an Unsettled Countryside: The news media and rural protests in Britain’, Culture Unbound, 12, 215-239. DOI
3. Woods, M. 2010. ‘Political economies of place in the emergent global countryside: stories from rural Wales’, in G. Halseth, S. Markey and D. Bruce (eds) The Next Rural Economies: Constructing Rural Place in Global Economies. Wallingford: CABI, pp 166-178.
4. Woods, M. 2010. ‘Performing Rurality and Practising Rural Geography’, Progress in Human Geography, 34(6), 835-846. DOI
5. Woods, M. 2010. ‘Representing Rural America: the reconstruction of a political space’, in D. Winchell, D. Ramsay, R. Koster and G. Robinson (eds) Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Rural Change. Brandon: Rural Development Institute.
6. Woods, M. 2010. ‘Rural protests in Britain and the enigmatic significance of globalization’, in D. Schmied and G. Wilson (eds) Globalization and Rural Transitions in Germany and the UK. Cuvillier Verlag.

2009

1. Woods, M. 2009. The political economies of place in the emergent global countryside: stories from rural Wales, in G. Halseth, S. Markey and D. Bruce (eds) The Next Rural Economies: Constructing Rural Place in a Global Economy, CAB International.
2. Woods, M. 2009. Rural Geography, in R Kitchin and N Thrift (eds) International Encyclopaedia of Rural Geography, Elsevier.
3. Woods, M. 2009. Rural Protest, in R Kitchin and N Thrift (eds) International Encyclopaedia of Rural Geography, Elsevier.
4. Cheshire, L. and Woods, M. (2009) Rural Citizenship and Governmentality, in R Kitchin and N Thrift (eds) International Encyclopaedia of Rural Geography, Elsevier.
5. Woods, M. 2009. Exploring the uneven geographies of ‘rural geography’: commentary of M. Kurtz and V. Craig, ‘Constructing rural geographies in practice’, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 8(2), 394-413. 
6. Woods, M. 2009. Rural Geography: Blurring boundaries and making connections, Progress in Human Geography, 33(6), 849-858. DOI

2008

1. Woods M. 2008. Social movements and rural politics. Journal of Rural Studies, 24(2): 129-137. DOI
2. Woods M. 2008. New Labour's countryside. New Labour's Countryside: Rural Policy in Britain since 1997, : 3-28.
3. Woods M. 2008. Hunting: New Labour success or New Labour failure?. New Labour's Countryside: Rural Policy in Britain since 1997, : 95-114.
4. Woods M. 2008. Beyond New Labour's countryside. New Labour's Countryside: Rural Policy in Britain since 1997, : 257-276.

2007

1. Woods M. 2007. Key concepts in urban studies (Book Review). Area, 39: 247-248.
2. Woods M. 2007. Engaging the global countryside: globalization, hybridity and the reconstitution of rural place. Progress in Human Geography, 31: 485-507.
3. Woods M, Edwards B, Anderson J, Gardner G. 2007. Leadership in place: elites, institutions and agency in British rural community governance. International Perspectives in Rural Governance,
4. Woods M. 2007. Redefining the 'rural question': the new 'politics of the rural' and social policy. Challenging Welfare Issues in the Global Countryside, : 1-17.
5. Woods M. 2007. Attractive ruralities? Re-thinking European peripheries in the global countryside. Landliche Gesellschaft europaischer Peripherien, : 23-38.

2006

1. Woods M. 2006. Redefining the 'rural question': The new 'politics of the rural' and social policy. Social Policy & Administration, 40: 579-595.
2. Woods M. 2006. Winning and losing: The changing geography of Europe's rural areas. European Urban and Regional Studies, 13: 282-283.
3. Woods M. 2006. Political articulation: the modalities of new critical politics of rural citizenship. Handbook of Rural Studies, : 457-471.
4. Woods M, Edwards B. 2006. Voluntarism and new forms of governance in rural communities. Landscapes of Voluntarism, : 53-72.
5. Woods M. 2006. Foreword. Living Together: Towards Inclusive Communities, : 7-12.
6. Woods M. 2006. Rural politics and governance. A New Rural Agenda, : 140-168.

2005

1. Desforges L, Jones R, Woods M. 2005. New geographies of citizenship. Citizenship Studies

Books

2008

1. Woods M(ed). 2008. New Labour's Countryside: Rural Policy in Britain since 1997. : 285.

2005

1. Woods M. 2005. Contesting Rurality: Politics in the British Countryside.
2. Woods M. 2005. Rural Geography: Processes, Responses and Experiences in Rural Restructuring.

Conference Papers

2008

1. Gardner G, Woods M. 2008. Policy engagement and critical rural geographies. Annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers

Reports

2008

1. Woods M, Watkin SR. 2008. Central and Eastern European Migrant Workers in Rural Wales. Welsh Assembly Government, : 65.

2007

1. Woods M. 2007. Small and Market Towns in Rural Wales and their Hinterlands. Welsh Assembly Government, : 129.
2. Woods M, Gardner G, Gannon K. 2007. Research Study of the Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, : 135 pp.

2006

1. Walkley C, Edwards B, Woods M, Milbourne P. 2006. Scoping Study on Eastern and Central European Migrant Workers in Rural Wales. Welsh Assembly Government, : 22.